Chris Finch on Anthony Edwards’ 5-of-23 night: ‘He kept making the right play,’ and his leadership is ‘one of the transformations of our team’

Anthony Edwards went 5-of-23 on Friday night in Orlando, and Chris Finch called it one of the better offensive games he has seen from him. Two nights after Edwards scored 45 against Miami, the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Magic 115-93 with seven players in double figures, 33 assists and a 61-43 edge on the boards. Finch said the way his star handled a cold night was the point.

“I was proud of Anthony in particular, because I know he was frustrated that he didn’t connect on his open looks, but he kept making the right play,” Finch said. “He changed up his game, and he wasn’t making shots from outside. He started going to the hoop. He didn’t necessarily get rewarded with the whistle as much as we would have liked, but he was getting downhill, putting pressure on the defense, and over time, I think it wears itself out.”

He compared it with older versions of Edwards. “I’ve seen him in the past at times where he would kind of get frustrated and try to prove to himself that the next one was going to go in,” Finch said. “But he went downhill.” Edwards finished with 15 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals, and Minnesota was plus-19 in his 33 minutes.

‘One of the transformations of our team’

Asked how Edwards has grown as a leader, Finch went further. “It’s been one of the transformations of our team, is his leadership,” he said. “He’s got an incredible personality. When you’re around him, he’s a guy that people just naturally gravitate to. He’s got a really infectious relationship with his teammates, and now he’s learning how to put it all together with the messaging and the approach and the lead by example, and holding his teammates accountable and holding himself accountable. So it’s been really fun to watch him mature, and everybody kind of maturing alongside of him, too.”

Finch also said Edwards’ passing has been where Minnesota pulls away. “Both games we’ve played, we’ve been able to kind of create distance in the game when Ant started finding people out of two-on-the-ball situations,” he said. “Maybe he didn’t get the assist, but he started a chain reaction.”

Ayo, LaMelo and a ‘contagious’ offense

Ayo Dosunmu had 14 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds off the bench, and Finch called him “phenomenal getting to his spots and making the right play, and it’s contagious now.” He said the Wolves expected to be a high-assist team with LaMelo Ball running the offense. “When you have a point guard like LaMelo, everything kind of spreads from that, and he’s looking to get people involved,” Finch said, adding that Minnesota should have had more assists against Miami but missed many of the open shots it created.

Dosunmu said the group is built to win on nights like this one. “Ant won’t shoot what he shot tonight. LaMelo probably won’t shoot what he shot tonight,” he said. “But we want to be a team that, when Ant wins, we can win. When Ant doesn’t score 50, we can win.” Ball had 12 points and 5 assists on 4-of-13 shooting and was plus-17.

Finch singled out Terrence Shannon Jr., who scored 13 on 4-of-6 shooting and drew a charge in his first stretch. “He’s got that kind of catalyst quality about him,” Finch said. “I think that’s what we’ve preached to him. For you, it’s all about consistency. The next step for you is not doing more. It’s doing the things you can do more often.” He added that Shannon has “come leaps and bounds defensively.”

From one of the worst rebounding teams to ‘a pursuit team’

The rebounding is the bigger change. Minnesota grabbed 22 offensive rebounds against Orlando, and Finch admitted the Wolves were “one of the worst teams” last season at “watching rebounds and not actually pursuing the ball.” He said it starts with Jaden McDaniels, Edwards and Jonathan Kuminga crashing, and with defense that keeps the Wolves out of rotations. “It’s the pursuit of the ball on both ends of the floor,” he said. “This year, we’ve been able to switch our mentality to be more of a pursuit team.”

Players have pointed to the workouts they held before training camp, and Finch said those sessions got heated. “There was a lot of kind of bad blood there,” he said. “There was a lot of times I thought it had boiled over, but it was great to see the intensity.” Rudy Gobert, who had 14 points and 9 rebounds on 6-of-8 shooting, called it “iron sharpens iron.” Dosunmu said the group “was going at it for a month straight” and that “now, it’s kind of easier in the game.”

Joan Beringer, 20, had 9 points and 9 rebounds, 7 of them offensive, in 15 minutes after a quiet night against Miami. Finch called him “a possessions guy tonight.” Beringer said that a year ago a game like the Miami one would have left him “so down,” and that Dosunmu is “like a big brother” who tells him to “wake up” when he is not playing well. Gobert said the young center is learning not to be “too high or too low,” because “you’ve got 80 more, and then the playoffs start.”

Minnesota is 2-0 and hosts the Toronto Raptors in its home opener on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET, which is 2 a.m. Monday in Cairo. Orlando, 0-2, plays the New York Knicks at the same time without Paolo Banchero, who has a low-grade high ankle sprain.